The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) is pleased to announce the release of the Rural Health Care Coordination Network Partnership Program (Care Coordination Program), a new, one-time funding opportunity created as one of the activities of the White House Rural Council.

Key attributes of the Care Coordination program:

Partnership: This grant program, which encourages new public-private partnerships in rural, will allow communities to have more support as they develop and implement their program. In addition to this FORHP funding opportunity announcement, 11 foundations have expressed interest in considering providing additional funding for care coordination activities by applicants in this program who are in their service areas. To find out further information on this opportunity, please visit: http://www.hrsa.gov/ruralhealth/philanthropy/carecoordination/index.html

Focus on Care Coordination: The main goal of care coordination is to meet patients’ needs and preferences in the delivery of high-quality, high-value health care. Care coordination in the primary care practice involves deliberately organizing patient care activities and sharing information among all of the participants concerned with a patient’s care to achieve safer and more effective care.

Attention to Chronic Illnesses: Grantees of the Care Coordination Program will focus on activities related to one or more for the following chronic conditions: 1) Type 2 Diabetes; 2) Congestive heart failure (CHF); and 3) Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The prevalence of these chronic diseases is increasing across the U.S. and is particularly problematic in rural areas. Applicants shall develop creative and innovative approaches to improve outcomes in one or more of the three pre-specified disease states and will track a minimum set of process and outcome measures.

Building the Evidence-base: A priority for FORHP grant programs is the identification of rural evidence-based, which puts the focus on project outcomes and allows FORHP to showcase model programs through the Rural Community Health Gateway, located on The Rural Assistance Center (RAC) website (http://www.raconline.org/communityhealth/). The Rural Community Health Gateway includes a variety of resources, including success program models and evidence-based toolkits, which can provide guidance and ideas to communities planning on developing similar programs. The information gathered through the Care Coordination program will help populate the Gateway.